


Mad Woman

by Tommy221



Category: Dreamcatcher (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Royalty, Attempted Sexual Assault, Character Death, F/F, I suck at tagging I hope this is enough :(, Physical Abuse, Princess Minji x Bard Yoohyeon, Royalty, Some Fluff, Threats of Rape/Non-Con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:20:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26242564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tommy221/pseuds/Tommy221
Summary: Princess Minji spends every day pretending to enjoy her life at court, hiding the pain behind her beautiful smile. It's only when the relationship with her future spouse gets tough, and when a newly met bard called Yoohyeon helps her out, that her life will begin to change.
Relationships: Kim Minji | JiU/Kim Yoohyeon
Comments: 4
Kudos: 45
Collections: DreamCatcher Taylor Swift Ficfest 2k20





	Mad Woman

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is my first fan fiction posted online and I'm not a native speaker so please forgive me for possible mistakes! Also super important, check the tags please! Nothing too drastic is told but if you feel uncomfortable with depiction of physical violence be careful bc there are some parts!

MAD WOMAN

“And you’ll poke that bear till her claws come out” 

Minji fixed her dress before stepping into the hallway; she checked her skirt, looked in the mirror and left her room. Another day, another insanely boring meeting of the royal council, a couple of hours used to blabber around and pretend to care about problems no one had really the intention of solving, followed by a feast with pricey food and a crowded room. As the future Queen she had to sit through it, put on a smile, laugh at those men’s jokes and hide her (very frequent) yawns. It was part of her job, after all.  
Walking down the hallways wasn’t a better experience: it was just a never ending cicle of “Good morning, m’lady”, bowing and smiling at each other. Minji had no idea who half of the people she met were, but luckily she was good at pretending. At parties she would act vague, compliment the ladies’ hairstyles and dresses, chat about some local land owners, and everyone would drink that up. They felt loved, validted, seen, too stuck up in their heads to realize that they were just seeing and hearing what they wanted to see and hear. Minji would run away in the matter of a heartbeat if she had the chance, she would leave everything behind and find a house in the forest, live with the stray cats that always wondered around the city’s walls and do everything at her own pace, following her own will. But even though she dreamed about it every time she was looking outside the window of her room, she couldn’t. Because she was gonna be the Queen, because if she left everyone would pay the consequences of those actions. She knew little to nothing about ruling and about that reign’s traditions, but she was the glue holding together the fragile alliance between the two reigns, the only person who could avoid a war that could have destroyed much more than the royal families. The entire reign was on her shoulders, paesants would come to the palace asking for advice on the silliest matters, waiting for her answer like they were waiting for an oracle to speak about their future. The whole world was at her feet, which implied that she didn’t have time for her feelings or hopes: being the princess was all she could do.

Minji was staring at the King, trying to mask her disgust and her anger behind the angelic smile everyone praised her for. The feast was boring like every other, she had been sitting there for hours eating stomaching food, listening to political blabbers and pretending to remember the faces of unkown lords. The Prince sitting next to her was having the time of his life, laughing out loud and drinking and eating everything the maids would bring. If she could, Minji would have slapped him in the face right there. Every day the marriage was nearer and Minji shivered at the idea of it; the idea of being married to that man, of having to sleep with him, by his side, for the rest of her life. Every night she fell asleep terrified, crying her eyes out thinking about how her life would just pass, an hard day after another, nothing and no one to hold on to. The prince had never shown to be particularly evil, but he was a carbon copy of his father: loud, obnoxious, egocentric. He did nothing but drink wine and sleep around, too dumb to realize everyone knew about his little adventures. Sometimes, when she was fantasizing about running in the woods and never coming back, she would also imagine to push the prince out of a window, down from one of the castle’s towers or in a ditch in the woods. It terrified her, the idea that her mind could go in those places and imagine those things; and even more, it terrified her that she would get such an exciting feeling from it, that she would find herself smiling and grinning while the thought formed in her head. She didn’t hate him, but she hated what he represented, she hated that she had no choice but to spend the rest of her life next to him.  
The room was crowded, loud and messy and she couldn’t wait to get out of there. The sound of the prince’s voice, asking the bards to switch the song into a love ballad, brought her down to reality. It was always like that: he didn’t ask polietly, he didn’t talk about his decisions before opening his mouth, he didn’t even try to make it seem like he was thinking about other people's feelings, he just did whatever his mind suggested first, because no one had ever thought him otherwise. He was a five years old in the body of an almost fully grown man, and he was sitting next to her grinning widely, as if asking for a cheesy love song was gonna make her desperatly want him; Minji focused on the ballad, more so to avoid any interaction with her future spouse than to enjoy the music. She started looking at he bards, imagining and longing to be one of them: all the bards she had met were really nice. Not necessarily kind, but they were free, energetic, fun. They would travel between the reigns, going where their music brought them. One bard in particular was capturing her attention, singing in the middle of her companions. Her voice was sweet and powerful,and she was smiling directly at her between a note and the other. The princess blushed, looking down for the embarassment. The bard was pretty, her hair were braided loosely and little strands were falling off on her shoulders; when their eyes met, her lips widened into a huge smile, revealing all her teeth, and her eyes squeezed a little bit. It was a really unique kind of beauty, that Yoohyeon had rarely seen around herself.  
“Are you enjoyining it?” said the prince leaning in on Minji’s ear. She looked at him, thanking God she was able to maintain her smile as an automatic reflex. Unable to answer properly she forced a little laugh and moved her eyes away. She hated talking to him, the sound of his voice, the arrogant way in which he would ask questions. But most of all she hated his hands, the way he would touch her shoulders while talking to her, as if they were close or intimate friends. His hand was now resting on her back and Minji was doing all she could to not shiver, to not give away how uncomfortable she was feeling while he deliberately started scratching, delicately yet uncomfortably; he knew what he was doing, she was sure of it, because he knew she couldn’t have reacted negatively in the middle of a crowded room. Once the prince stopped teasing her Minji took a deep breath to calm down, looking around the room to assure no one had noticed, gladly realizing that most people were too drunk to even pay attention to them.  
She looked back at the bard, who had just finished the ballad and was still looking towards her: she wasn’t smiling anymore.

“Does a scorpion thing when fighting back?” 

Waking up the next day Minji found her pillow soaking wet, a reminder of how much she had cried before falling asleep. Nothing new, after all. She was used to it and so were her maids, who quickly arrived to help her wash and get dressed. Minji didn’t really trust them, and to be fair she didn’t trust anyone. She felt constantly observed, like they were just spies of the royal family ready to rat out every secret she had, every little detail that would show her insecurity about her situation. And her pillow, wet with tears morning after morning, was already more than she should have let out.

She was sitting in the conference room, completly focused on not letting any of her boredom pass through her face. The lords had been talking for about an hour about useless ideas on how to help the people, how to make the crops more proficuos, how to handle better the cattle; none of them had any intention of helping the people, all they cared about was getting meat on their tables during their feasts, or having fresh bread every morning.  
The prince, sitting between Minji and the King, wasn’t trying has hard as her: he was slouched in his chair, yawning basically every minute and resting his head on his hand. He kept shooting looks at Minji, staring at her right in the eyes and smiling vaguely.  
Despite her best efforts to remain calm Minji popped off as soon as the reunion ended. Trying to control herself she formally saluted the lords, the king and the prince and speeded towards the door as fast as the social etiquette allowed. She was hoping to see some court lady, a maid in need of help, or literally anyone else that would allow her to get as far from the prince as possible. The hallway, however, was empty, completly silent and static. When she heard quick steps coming towards her from behind she knew what was coming.   
She took a deep breath, put on a smile and turned around to find the disgusting sight of the prince, with his stupid look on his face, as if she was supposed to be incredibly delighted to see him.  
“The reunion was dreadful, wasn’t it?” he said stepping closer. She hated the look on his face.  
“It was… long-winded” she said in the most polite way possible. What did he want from her?  
“Thankfully it ended now. Why don’t we go for a walk together?” he said offering his arm to lead her out.  
“I would love to, but unfortunately I am keeping the ladies waiting, we are about to have some sawing time together” She liked sawing more than most activities, probably because it just consisted of sitting in silence while pretending to listen to others’ business, and in that moment she liked it even more: spending time alone with the prince was the last thing she wanted. Ever.  
“I’m sure they can wait a little longer, don’t you want to spend some time together, m’lady?” he said stepping even closer.   
Minji was paralized, digging her nails into her hand to keep herself from running away. Normally the prince would try to avance her, but at her first time refusing he would get too discouraged to keep going, too scared to be embarassed in front of maids or ladies to go on. But this time something was different, there was a horrible light in his eyes. The corridor was empty and the lords were still chit chatting inside the throne room.  
Minji, speechless, watched the prince take another step forward and put his hand on her back. She wanted to run away, but all she could think of was the consequences it would have had on the reign and on the people. She didn’t want to mess everything up by screaming, so she tried her best to compose herself and get out of that situation.   
“I’m sorry, I really have to go” Her voice was shaky and insecure, but that was the best she could do; she turned around to walk away, and when she felt something pulling her dress the last bit of hope she had for the situation to end quietly vanished. She tried to run, but a steady grip grabbed her arm with too much strength. Before really realizing what had happened her hand flashed through the air and she felt her nails passing through the prince’s face.  
In the matter of seconds she was running on the corridor, sobbing for the fear. Before turning the corner she looked desperately to the back: the prince was staring at her from afar, holding a piece of her skirt in his arms and bleeding from a deep scratch on his cheek. 

Minji ran out of the castle without hesitation, ending in the middle of the city before even considering the consequences that that would have had. Once she realized she was outside of the castle she freezed, seeing how many people were watching her: merchants, craftsmen, farmers. Everyone was just as shocked as she was to see the princess outside, with a terrified look on her face instead of the usual sweet, honey-like smile.  
In the between of deciding whether to run back in or staying in the streets she heard some guards calling her name behind her back: she ran deeper into the crowd without looking back, trying to get into the deepest and empties alleys she could find. The damage was already done, after all everyone had seen her in that state already, the skirt torn apart and the tears on her face, and she didn’t have the stomach to go back inside and face the punishment to her actions.   
Running in the city wasn’t a fun experience either: passed the massive crowd near the castle she still met numerous eyes of citiziens looking at her, disgusted by her condition or just surprised to see the princess out there. She didn’t know where to go, she didn’t know a soul outside of the castle, all she knew was that guards were probably following her and trying to get her back inside.  
“Princess! Come in here” a voice shouted from a window above her. It took a second to Minji to realize the woman shouting was a somehow familiar face, and after that she just rushed inside the house, pushing the wood door and shutting it behind her and falling to the ground sobbign.  
The bard she had seen the previous day at the feast appeared on the stairs, rushing to her as soon as she saw she was crying.   
“Everything is fine, you are fine here, I promise” she said softly sitting beside her.  
Minji looked at her, trying to decide how to act: she shouldn’t trust strangers, she knew that. But in that moment she was just so scared, so frightened by the idea of going back to the castle that she couldn’t keep herself from falling into the girl’s arms and cry until all her tears had run out.

“And there’s nothing like a mad woman, what a shame she went mad” 

Minji woke up in an unfamiliar bed, an unfamiliar house, to unfamiliar noises and an unfamiliar smellw. Slightly opening her eyes she could see the entirety of the room she was in: an already small square that looked even smaller if compared to Minji’s usual apartments. A girl was standing in front of the stove, stirring some pots over the fire. It may sound egocentric or superficial, but for the firts time Minji understood what people felt while looking at her: for her whole life she had been told she was beautiful, gorgeous even, that her smile could warm up a whole room, that her golden locks shined like sun; but she knew the reality of it, what lied behind the smiles and the beautiful dresses and the intricate hairstyles. She had always despised herself when catching her reflection on a mirror or on a lake, because she knew that it was all fake, it was all a scam put up to satisfy others. But that girl had a completly different energy. Her dark hair was falling on her shoulders, her skin was glowing under the sunlight, and even if she was just making some food sitting on a stool, she looked gorgeous.  
“Good, you’re awake!” she exclaimed when she turned around, and for a moment Minji let herself pretend that that was her real life. She pretended like every day she would wake up to that smile and that scent and that light. She pretended the prince and the king were all nightmares, far and confined into the dream world, and she let herself believe they had no impact on her quotidianity.   
“Would you fancy some soup? Your majesty?” Minji was pulled back to reality.  
“Yes, thank you. And call me Minji, please.” she said sitting in her bad. She realized that between the morning crying and the falling asleep she had gotten rid of her broken pink dress and changed it with a more comfortable and simple one.   
The bard handed her the soup, a flaming hot cup that felt like the warmest hug in the world, and upon thanking the girl, Minji realized she didn’t know her name.  
“I’m Yoohyeon” she answered smiling “I am a bard”.  
“I’ve seen you perform at palace, you are very good”.  
“I’m glad you noticed me” said Yoohyeon smiling at her. Her smile was so different from Minji’s: it was sweet and warm, but it was also so wholesome. Whenever she smiled, the princess would always feel her lips heavy, as if she had to make a concious effort to not drop them and turn her expression into anger. But Yoohyeon smile was light, it was like her whole face was lighting up. And her laugh, oh God, her laugh: Minji had never felt such a warm feeling because of someone’s voice.  
Despite almost dropping it because of the heat, Minji held to the bowl of soup throughout their whole conversation, feeling more and more at ease as Yoohyeon started joking around. She wasn’t treating her like a princess, more like an old friend she was catching up with, as if they hadn’t seen each other since childhood and were now talking about all that had happened since the old days. Yoohyeon was a bard, she travelled around cities with her group and right now they were staying at an inn all together. She described her group in details and then got lost in the narration of their craziest experiences, runaways from villages because they didn’t have the money to pay, accidentally infuriating some sovreign because of the wrong song, and so on. Once started it was hard to stop her talking, and Minji had no intention to: she loved every word, every syllable that came out of her mouth; she liked hearing Yoohyeon talking, but it was deeper than that. Her eyes shined at the idea of that kind of life, at the thought of leaving whenever she felt the need to, experiencing the world without any condition, without any blood burden to carry around. And at the same time she knew she could never do it, she knew she was a princess and that choosing a life like that would cause so much damage, not just to her but to everyone. So she kept listening to Yoohyeon, wishing that afternoon would never end.   
Alas, the sun started to set, casting a golden light through the window. Yoohyeon, realizing how late it was, finished her story off, grabbed Minji’s bowl from her hands and then looked through the window.   
“There’s no guard around, do you want me to accompany you to the castle?” she said.  
“It would be really kind of you, thanks”.   
The two girls step out of the inn, walking towards the castle through the main street. Minji was feeling a bit more confident with Yoohyeon by her side, but she was still shivering thinking about what would’ve happened once she got back inside. Not many people were looking at Minji now that she wasn’t wearing fancy jewlrey and a puffy dress.   
Before getting to the entrance Minji stopped Yoohyeon and hugged her.  
“Thank you for today” she whispered in her ear with an intimacy she had never had with anyone. Yoohyeon smiled and held her hands thight. She opened her mouth and closed it without saying anything, and then she let go of Minji’s hands.   
“If you ever need help,you know where to find me” she whispered before turning back and quickly walking away.  
The princess looked at her disappearing in the crowd before taking a deep breath and reaching the entrance. She was scared, terrified, her heart was beating faster than it ever did, but in some way she was also feeling hopeful: for the first time in a very long time she had found somewher, someone that felt like home.

Her slight happiness lasted for about ten minutes, the time taken to walk through the entrance of the main hall, where she was reached not only by the prince, but fromthe king and queen and a group of knights.   
Time ten more minutes and Minji found herself sobbing in her room after the prince had pushed her to the ground, calling her all kind of insults. Apparently, he had passed what happened as an “incident” to his father and the rest of the court, and Minji returning running in tears in the city while the prince presented a blooding cut on his cheek were unrelated details. In the end, everything managed to be worse than Minji imagined: no one cared. No one moved a finger when the prince put his hand on her back to guide her to her room, pushing a bit too hard and using a bit too much strength. And she knew the prince understood what that meant as much as her: he could do it again, and again, and again, and push the line a little further everytime. Minji was crying before even entering her room and the push and yelling didn’t arrive unexpected. When he left she stood on the ground for what felt like hours, his words echoing in her head over and over again: the guards had been searching for her the whole day, what if she had gotten herself killed? Maybe she deserved that, she should rot in hell, she was so ungrateful, after being given everything at the castle, if she dared to do it again…  
Minji fell asleep on the ground, too tired to get to the bed, too tired even to take her dress out, too tired to notice that none of her maids had come for her.

Afterwards, Minji’s days became a whirlwind of emotions. The prince’s cut healed slower than expected, creating a certain buzz at court, which was actually the only good thing for Minji: he couldn’t risk another obvious wound like that, so he didn’t try to push the line too much. Which didn’t mean he would respect her, it didn’t mean she hadn’t started wearing longer sleeves on her dresses to hide the bruises on her arm. But at the same time, she had Yoohyeon. She was still enduring the suffering from the prince, and she would still wake up every day with her pillow soaking wet with tears, but she would find some pockets of hope, some little moments to live for. The bard, Minji noticed, was making a conscious effort to come to court as often as possible, and during the following weeks the princess would look forward to every moment she had with her. They started becoming closer, not only because Minji had no one else but also because they quickly found out how similar they were in many ways. Minji tought Yoohyeon about great poems and novels and the other tought her how to play the lute. They would sneak off in her room for hours and talk about their worlds: the princess would tell about the new astronomyical discoveries and Yoohyeon would teach her the sayings and the jokes of a foreign city. They never talked about what was going on, mostly because she didn’t want to drag her only friend into that mess, partially because she was so tired of being in the castle and arounf the prince every day all day that she just wanted to not be immersed in that situation for some moments. Yoohyeon had became her runaway from reality, her home, she would spend the day hoping to see her around waiting for her. They started planning ways to make it easier for Yoohyeon to sneak in: she would get dressed as a cook, or as a maid, and pretend to be coming back from some duty in the shops. Or, she would sneak in during the guard change, hiding in the garden where Minji would rescue her from an inside window.  
Her room was both her safe heaven and the cub of her nightmares. She would laugh softly and smile at Yoohyeon’s jokes during the day and sob exhausted at night. She would dream of spending the rest of her life with the bard while they were together, and imagine of giving back every single drop of pain to the prince when she remained alone with her thoughts only. It was also where her and Yoohyeon became more for each other than just friends. It was Yoohyeon who made the first move (Minji would have never dared to), leaning in with her face and stealing a quick kiss. It was a cold afternoon and Minji was telling her about some epic romance story she had heard from the ladies of the castle. It was soft, sweet, and Minji’s heart felt like exploding, in a surprisingly good way. After the kiss Minji rested her head on Yoohyeon’s shoulder and silently sobbed. Because she loved it, she loved the kiss and spending time with Yoohyeon and she just wished she could just live that life, take away all the bad parts and enjoy her time with Yoohyeon.  
“Do you want to talk about it?” said the bard in a whisper. It was the first time the subject was touched and Minji didn’t know how to answer. How could she explain to her bard-lover-friend something that big? That she knew she had no escape, that in two months she will be married to the worst person she knew, that once people will consider him her spouse nothing wills top him from breaking her completly. She couldn’t. She couldn’t drag Yoohyeon in that mess. So she shook her head softly, whispering a no.  
“I understand it’s hard, but that is not something you should keep to yourself” said the bard touching Minji’s arm. The princess shivered, trying to hide the purple bruise under her sleeve as a reflex. She had gotten so good at it that she had an automatic reaction.   
“It’s nothing” tried to say Minji in a not-too-convinced tone. Yoohyeon stayed silent, but Minji knew she wasn’t buying it. She raised her head from her friend’s shoulder. Yoohyeon had a blank expression, so blank that Minji didn’t knwo how to react. Usually everyone around her had opinions on every issue, from the smallest detail in a meal to the bruises that would accidentally pass through her dress. But Yoohyeon didn’t, and that made Minji feel like it was somehow even harder.  
“What do you want me to say? You know what’s happening!” Tears were forming on her eyes. “Was this the man you are supposed to marry?” she asked simply. Minji nodded.  
“This isn’t right” whispered Yoohyeon, and Minji nodded one more. Feeling someone other than herself say it felt weirdly consoling, but it also hurt even more.  
“We should run away, go somewhere where he can’t hurt you”  
“I can’t, I’m the princess” said Minji. She loved Yoohyeon for saying that, but the truth is that she had no choice. She could not allow herself to dream such things for real if she wanted her reign to make peace.  
“And so what? You deserve happiness too” said Yoohyeon grabbin her hands. Minji rested her forehead against Yoohyeon’s, shredding silent tears of joy. Because her happiness was Yoohyeon, and hearing her say that made her feel like nothing before.

One month later the two girls were sitting in Minji’s room, braiding the princess’s hair in a big long braid typical of a foreign reign. Minji was dozing off, focused on Yoohyeon’s hands passing through her hair. The wedding was getting closer day by day, and Minji was more scared every time she thought of that. Her an Yoohyeon were doing great, she visited her basically everyday and even though pretty much everybody at court had started rumoring about that bard who would be occasionally seen come in and out of the castle, about how she would be closed in the princess’s room for hours, no one had enough courage to ask Minji about it except for the prince, who was too busy acting mad furious everytime the princess would avoid his questions or answer vaguely to actually try and gain some information. Everyday a new bruise would appear on Minji’s arm, or on her legs or chest or every other space that would be coverable with a dress. The maids would hesitate while washing Minji and she would shiver everytime their sponges passed on the green and purple spots.   
The weird dreams, the scary ones about hurting the prince or paying him his own medicine were now the norm. When spending time with Yoohyeon she felt fine, calm and relaxed and somehow happy. In any other moment, however, she was living in hell. She would jump at every little noise, hold back tears most of the day, break down the moment she left a room full of people. She new about the rumors that circulated around her, both at court and outside. She knew that her image of sweet and honest princess was now contaminated by lies, ideas passed around and twisted until they became completly different information; some believed she was fornicating with lords at court, and that was why the prince had hit her. Some believed she had tried to kill the prince herself. Other again had no idea on how the situation had developed, but called her a slut nonetheless. She could notice the change in the people who surrounded her, how they would avoid her eyes and whisper as she walked by, instead of stopping to salute or asking for her opinion as they used to. Before the prince tried to force himself on her, before the day she met Yoohyeon, Minji was miserable, but at least she knew that her marriage and her presence at court would represent a vessel, would unite the people and prevent a possible war. Now she wasn’t sure about that, either. She didn’t know if the image people had of her would be enough to calm down the masses and end the hate between the two reigns in case something bad happened. The idea of having to marry the prince for it to be useless drove her mad, and her days had turned into a never ending cycle of breakdowns. She wanted to run away, but she also didn’t want to condemn everyone. She wanted to honour her family, but the bare idea of being the prince’s wife made her want to vomit. On that day everything culminated. Every insecurity, every little tear her body had yet to shed, every low whisper she had heard while walking in the corridors brought her there, to the day where her life changed completly. 

The prince was teasing her again, pushing himself further and further. As usual, Minji was swallowing her tears and trying to ignore his behaviour. The room they were in wasn’t completly empty, some ladies were chatting at the entrance, but Minji still felt incredibly unsafe.   
He ce was too close to her, and she tried her best to push him back without being noticed. Maybe it was the tension of being rejected yet again, maybe it wa the effect of the particularly visual rumors he had heard that morning, but in the matter of a second the prince’s hand swung through the hair and slapped her on the face. Minji’s cheek started burning in a matter of seconds, and her soft cry of pain was covered by the sound of the slap. She looked at the prince, as shocked as she was, and ran away. She broke between the ladies, who were already looking at them, and ran towards her room crying.   
Her intention was to shut the door behind her and cry her eyes out, nothing different from the same routine. Her room’s tower, however, was on the opposite side of the castle, and too many eyes would have gotten a glimpse of her burning-red cheek to risk it, so she ran up the stairs, getting as high as she could in the nearest tower, which accidentally happened to be the highest one of the castle. She was caught without breath before making it to the top, and stopped to rest. She sat down and sobbed, looking down from the windows, trying to focus on the busy city full of people. She thought that in there, between everyone, Yoohyeon was probably performing some ballad, or having a meal with her mates. The windows were so big she could fit between them. For a second she considered the option. Maybe it would have been more than a second, if someone’s footsteps didn’t interrupt her thinking. They weren’t just someone’s footsteps, though, they were the prince’s. She was terrified, conscious of being completly alone with him. She run upstairs gripped by fear, hoping to find anything to defend herself with. The prince didn’t accelerate his climbing, probably aware that she was completly alone.   
Getting to the top, the princess realized hopeless that the tower was basically empty. Maybe if it was another moment of the day a sentinel would have been watching around. But the sun was gong down and that role had no use anymore, so all that room had to offer were a feeble fire coming from a torch, a couple of little wooden stools, a heap of straw and two big windows. She looked at them, considering to climb on one of them. She hesitated. She wished she didn’t.  
“I am sorry I hit you earlier” said the prince appearing at the door. He didn’t look sorry, and at the contrary his face was filled by a malicious smile. He stepped closer to her without any waiting. She knew what he was going to do, and she knew he was stronger and taller than her. She would never have won in a fight., so she acted as soon as possible, hoping to catch him off guard, grabbed one of the little stools and smashed it on his legs as hard as she could. The stool broke in pieces, producing a cranky noise that mixed with the prince’s scream of pain. He was grabbing his legs, but he was still conscious and had definetly enough energy to curse at her. Minji, on the other hand, was blacking out. All she could visualise in her head was getitng out of there, and her brain was giving full priority to her body. She grabbed the torch and tried to hit him on the head with it. It didn’t work fully, the prince crunched on the ground for the pain, but the torch was too light to actually make him pass out. The princess threw the torch she was holding on the ground and started running towards the stairs. She was getting there, she was one step away from running down from that tower and away from that life. She felt a hand grabbing her ankle, and the last thing she remembered was hitting her head against the wall while rolling down the stairs.

“No one likes a mad woman, you made her like that”

Minji’s head was hurting. It was like a hammer was hitting her slowly but regularly, making it difficult for her to understand what was going on. She was confused, she didn’t remember where she was nor what she was doing. Touching around with her head she realized she was half sitting on stone stairs, and the smell coming through her nose suggested there was smoke around her. She realized it was hot. Really hot. When it all clicked together, Minji finally opened her eyes and stood up: flames were coming from the top of the tower, making it hard to even breath in all that smoke. She ran down the stairs and shut the the first three or four windows open, in hope of catching some hair. While gaining her breath she started to piece together what had happened, and quickly realized the prince was probably still in the tower. She looked upstairs: the flames weren’t a big problem yet, they were still considerably small.   
It wasn’t pity what made her go back to check, but curiosity. She wanted to see if he was dead, if he was just passed out, if he had already run away and left her to die there. She didn’t, and never will, understand what was going on through her head in that moment, but she tore apart a piece of her skirt, used it to cover her mouth and nose from the smoke and quickly reached the top of the tower again.   
Looking in, the flames were bigger than she had expected. The walls were burning and the wooden roof wasn’t gonna last long. Some pieces of wood had already fallen off, one of which was blocking him. The prince was laying downwards, apparently passed out, with his face on the ground and a bleeding wound on his head. Next to him was the torch she had thrown, still burning in the midst of the flames it had started. She didn’t know what to do, really. Some months prior, maybe, she would have tried to help him. Her sense of guilt would have taken control, because without the prince there was no marriage and without it there was no peace for her reign. But now, after everything had happened, she looked down on his body and felt nothing but disgust. While she bended to grab the torch, the prince’s head moved slowly, looking around himself.   
“What is happening?” he asked quietly, and quickly the panic appeared on his face as he realized he was blocked under a piece of the roof. Minji took a step back. Maybe at that point she had already decided to do it, or maybe it was the prince grabbing her leg to ask for help that had her make up her mind.  
“You have to help me!” he groaned in pain. Minji raised the torch above her head, as high as she could, and the heat started to slowly carbonize the remaining wooden roof.  
“I don’t have to do anything” she said apathic, stepping on his hand with her other feet. She made sure to press it hard enough for him to feel at least a little bit of pain. The prince screamed while letting go of her leg. Quickly the wood started burning, and the flames spread through out the whole roof.   
While walking out she could hear his coughs, caused by the smoke filling the room; she could her his screaming, both the begging and the imprecations he was throwing at her. But she didn’t turn back, not when passing the door, not when descendings through the stairs. She shouldn’t have, but she felt so powerful. She felt somewhat happy. The truth is that she hadn’t registered what had happened yet, not fully. Everything she could think of was that she had run in that tower and thought her life would end and she had come down from it leaving behind her biggest problem. When she arrived to the end of the tower with a smile plastered on her face and a flaming torch in her hand, however, most people standing didn’t feel as good about the situation as she did.

“It was her!” someone shouted.   
“I always knew she was crazy”, “Mad like her reign”,”She deserves a shame walk!”,”She should be punished for what she did!”,”It’s all her fault”. The voices layered on one another, filling Minji’s head. The people had run to the entrance of the tower to see what was happening as soon as the smoke had became visible from theoutside. The smile on Minji’s face quickly turned into a terrified expression. She realized what she had just done: she had killed the prince. She had ruined her reign forever. She quickly looked around: some guards were coming from the left, but the right was free (except for the crowd of ladies and lords reunited around the tower). She realize she was still holding the torch and immediately dropped it on the ground, gaining nothing but screams by the people around her. Without knowing anything better to do, Minji started running, breaking into the crowd who had loosened up because of the torch. In the general confusion someone tried to stop her, but nobody was quick enough and the only result was toring apart her skirt once more. While the guards behind her were catching space, Minji realized the only way she had to outrun them was to use the castle in her favor. She blessed the time spent with Yoohyeon to elaborate on plans to come in and out of it, and used every room she knew to leave that building. Soon enough she was in the garden, passing through the bushes to get outside and into city. She knew exactly what to do, and while a part of her was scared and terrified and felt only like crumbling down and crying all her tears out, the other one felt the best she had ever felt.   
She crushed into Yoohyeon’s house without even knocking and found her sitting on her bead with her lute on her lap.  
“Please, let’s go” said Minji. She had smoke stains on her cheeks and her dress was compeltly broken to pieces, half burned ins ome points. Yoohyeon didn’t say anything, she grabbed a bag under her bed and smiled to her, and together they ran outside of the city into the woods. Before disappearing into the forest Minji turned back one last time: the fire was getting bigger and bigger and the smoke was rising to the sky. 

[EPILOUGE]

Minji passed her hand through Yoohyeon’s hair softly. She looked so beautiful like that, with her head on Minji’s lap and her eyes closed while she enjoyed the sounds of nature. She picked another cherry and fed it to her spouse, receiving a little laugh in response.   
“They taste so sweet!” said Yoohyeon with her eyes still closed “I could eat them all day”.  
“Good thing we have all day then” said Minji softly before leaning in to give her a quick kiss.  
“I love you” mormoured Yoohyeon, and Minji’s heart filled with warmth. She looked around, at the river’s waters lazily moving through the course, at the fishes peeping on the surface, to the trees shaking because the wind. She loved her too, and she loved that life, every little detail of it. From waking up next to Yoohyeon to making breakfast through going to the garden to pick the vegetables. Probably it wouldn’t have lasted forever, but they were enjoying it as long as it was possible, focusing on one thing at a time.  
“I love you too” whispered Minji before kissing Yoohyeon on the forehead.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!  
> As I said earlier I am not a native speaker and I don't write a lot in English so I'm sorry if the narration was a bit sloppy or repetitive, I hope you enjoyed it anyway <3  
> Also maybe this would have worked better as a multi chapter but I am really inconstant and preferred to finish it in one go lol


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